6
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Friday, April 22, 2022
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Opinion
Editor & Publisher
Managing Editor
Joe Beach
Carl Sampson
opinions@capitalpress.com | CapitalPress.com/opinion
Our View
Another voice weighs in on Snake River dams
A
n obscure division within
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now wants to weigh in on the
fate of four dams on the lower Snake
River.
Another voice that appears to be
leaning toward removing the dams.
In a March 28 blog post, the
White House Council on Environ-
PHQWDO4XDOLW\RXWOLQHGLWVH൵RUWV
to study breaching the dams. Those
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Nation” meeting between federal agen-
cies and leaders of the Tribes of the
Columbia River Basin.
The Council on Environmen-
tal Quality was established during
the Nixon administration under the
National Environmental Policy Act.
According to the council’s website, it
is charged with coordinating “the fed-
HUDOJRYHUQPHQW¶VH൵RUWVWRLPSURYH
preserve and protect America’s public
health and environment.”
According to the blog, the coun-
Getty Images
The spillway at Lower Monumental
Dam in Washington on the Snake River.
cil last fall convened leaders from
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of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, Army
Corps of Engineers and the Bonneville
Power Administration.
The group will “build on existing
analyses to identify a durable path for-
ward that ensures a clean energy future,
supports local and regional economies,
and restores ecosystem function, while
honoring longstanding commitments to
Tribal Nations,” the blog states.
“We cannot continue business as
usual. Doing the right thing for salmon,
Tribal Nations, and communities can
EULQJXVWRJHWKHU,WLVWLPHIRUH൵HF-
tive, creative solutions,” the blog states.
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“We heard calls to support breach-
ing the four dams on the lower Snake
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also about the need to replace the ser-
vices provided by those dams, and rec-
ognition that such a step would require
congressional action,” the blog post
reads. “We were asked to consider the
Basin holistically because of its inher-
ent interconnectedness.”
OK. Let’s consider the farmers and
other people who depend on the river.
The dams in southeast Washington
generate electricity and allow farm-
ers to move grain by barge down the
Columbia River’s main tributary.
Without the dams, the river would
be too shallow to barge wheat and
other farm goods the roughly 100 miles
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DFFHVVWRRXUFRXUWV
T
Our View
Capital Press File
Farmers and farmworkers did a spectacular job keeping Americans fed during the pandemic.
When farmers, farmworkers
came through for the U.S.
W
hen COVID-19 arrived in the U.S.
from China a little more than two
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tainty among the 328 million Americans, none of
whom had ever been through anything like it.
Researchers scrambled to understand the
strange new virus even as it infected vast swaths
of the population. While many cases were mild
— or even presented no symptoms at all — oth-
ers were fatal.
In the midst of this crisis, farmers, ranchers,
processors and farmworkers were all called upon
to feed the nation.
By any measure, it was not easy. The
ever-changing regulatory landscape made what
ZDVDOUHDG\DGL൶FXOWMREHYHQWRXJKHU
In the end, U.S. agriculture performed spec-
tacularly. Fears of food shortages disappeared,
DQGIRRGER[HVDQGJRYHUQPHQWEHQH¿WVZHUH
increased so no American had to worry about
eating.
All of this happened against a backdrop of
record unemployment, workplace upheaval for
those who still had a job and, above all else,
uncertainty as advice, directives and regulations
changed, sometimes from day to day.
(YHQDIWHUYDFFLQHVZHUHIRXQGWREHH൵HFWLYH
and widely available, suspicions remained and
some people refused the life preserver. This was
their right, but it also diminished a means of stem-
ming the tide of COVID.
Some critics say the government — and pri-
vate employers such as farmers and processors —
didn’t do enough to protect employees. With the
EHQH¿WRIKLQGVLJKWWKH\VD\WKH\VKRXOG
have been provided with more masks, plastic
dividers and other tools.
Some critics have faulted agencies such as
OSHA for not being aggressive enough, while
others said they were too aggressive.
In a time when facts were few and fears were
many, these agencies were doing their best.
In 2020, the Oregon Farmworker COVID-
19 Study interviewed upward of 300 farmwork-
ers. They said that even in the early months of the
pandemic 77% of their co-workers wore masks
all of the time and 68% said that they or their fore-
man had received training on avoiding COVID.
In much of Oregon, the pandemic was not an
LVRODWHGLQFLGHQW:LOG¿UHVGHVWUR\HGWKHKRPHV
of many farmworkers, often forcing them to tem-
porarily live in close proximity to one another,
even while they continued to work on the farms.
But for the most part, they and others were
able to protect themselves and to harvest the crops
that feed the nation.
This should be a point of pride for farmers,
farmworkers, processors and the many others in
agriculture who overcame extraordinary hard-
ships during the past two years to keep the econ-
omy moving.
They also deserve a sincere “thank you” from
all of us for jobs well done.
READERS’ VIEW
/HW¶VZRUN
WRJHWKHURQIDUP
ODERUVXSSO\
was onerous, exacerbated by
WKHKHDWGRPH¶VDGYHUVHH൵HFW
on crop yields. However, we
were in no position to reduce
hours or hourly pay. In fact, we
Pam Lewison castigated
raised hourly rates, increased
Gov. Jay Inslee for being “…
KRXUVDVZHOODVEHQH¿WVWRRXU
out of touch… with the farm-
farmworkers. Even with these
ers and ranchers of [Wash-
changes, we were unable to
ington]…” stating that
hire additional seasonal farm
Washington’s overtime pay
workers last summer. We’re not
requirements for farmwork-
alone.
ers “… will force employers to
The dearth of farmworkers,
reduce [the hourly rate] to min- widely reported by the Capi-
tal Press, is crippling agriculture
imum wage and limit hours
WKURXJKRXWWKH3DFL¿F1RUWK-
worked.…”
west. Rather than condemn pol-
In January 2021, Firestone
iticians who are trying to give
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overtime pay for our small farm farmworkers livable wages, I
challenge farm lobbyists and
crew that cultivate our blue-
berry and blackberry crops. The my fellow industry participants
¿QDQFLDOLPSDFWRIWKLVGHFLVLRQ to focus time and energy on the
between Lewiston, Idaho, and the
Tri-Cities. Lake Sacajawea, a reservoir
created by Ice Harbor Dam, irrigates
47,000 acres. The loss of electricity
generated by the dams would increase
the cost of pumping groundwater.
The agriculture and shipping com-
munities remain wary of discussions on
the fate of the dams.
“We continue to be engaged with the
administration at CEQ,” Michelle Hen-
nings, executive director of the Wash-
ington Association of Wheat Growers,
said. “Looking at the blog, we would
have liked to see more focus on the
impact this would have had on farmers
across the country.”
Removing the dams would come
at the expense of the entire region that
depends on low-cost and reliable elec-
tricity the dams provide and the liveli-
hoods of farmers, barge operators, deck
hands, dock workers in the region and
the vendors who support them.
It continues to be a bad idea.
root cause of our collective chal-
lenge: labor supply.
We need to come up with
short term and long term solu-
tions to expand the supply
of farmworkers. A blueberry
grower in Lynden, Wash., sug-
gested to me that the United
States should emulate Canada’s
guest worker program. Whether
or not this is a credible option
is besides the point. I give him
credit for focusing on solv-
ing the problem versus scoring
political points.
Let’s work together to be
the change we want to see in
agriculture.
Josh Hinerfeld
CEO
)LUHVWRQH3DFL¿F)RRGV
Vancouver, Wash.
he United States judicial sys-
tem should be structured to
successfully process legitimate
cases as quickly as possible. Unfortu-
nately, many Idahoans are burdened
by a serious backlog within the fed-
eral judicial system, limiting their
access to a timely trial.
This is due in part to loopholes
being exploited within current federal
policy and is made worse by organi-
zational issues within the federal court
system.
One example would be the Equal
Access to Justice Act (EAJA),
which was enacted in 1980 and was
designed to curb federal overreach
and wrongdoing and allow wider
access to the federal judicial system.
One key aspect of EAJA was to
DOORZSODLQWL൵VWRVHHNUHLPEXUVHPHQW
from the federal government for attor-
ney’s fees related to the cases brought
against the government. The EAJA
program provides a crucial service to
many small businesses, individuals
and veterans with limited resources to
seek redress against the wrongs of the
federal government.
Unfortunately, this law has also
allowed some special interest groups
to create an endless cycle of litigation
and clog the federal courts, all while
enriching themselves with taxpayer
dollars.
In the case of the Endangered Spe-
cies Act (ESA), some environmental
groups have been able to take advan-
tage of EAJA by repeatedly alleg-
ing violations of the ESA. In fact,
repeated lawsuits appear to have
become a business model for many
environmental groups. The groups
will sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service for violations of the ESA,
EHQH¿WIURPXVLQJWKHLUODZVXLWDVD
fundraising tool, and then have their
attorneys’ fees paid despite having the
means to do so themselves.
Such frivolous lawsuits require
time and funding from federal agen-
cies that could be better spent on more
critical priorities, such as authentic
FRQVHUYDWLRQH൵RUWVIRUHQGDQJHUHG
species.
,QDQH൵RUWWRVKLQHDOLJKWRQ
EAJA abuse in my past role as chair-
man of the House Interior and Envi-
ronment Appropriations Subcom-
mittee, I included language in
appropriations bills directing the
Department of the Interior, the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency and
the Forest Service to make legal fees
paid to litigants under EAJA publicly
available. Astonishingly, last year, the
Department of the Interior awarded
$2.5 million in EAJA reimburse-
ments, and has historically paid for
hourly rates as high as $865 per hour.
Throughout my time in Congress,
I have continued to push for EAJA
reform to prevent special interest
groups from creating excessive back-
logs and wrongfully taking advan-
tage of the EAJA program. In the
113th Congress, I cosponsored H.R.
3037, the Government Litigation Sav-
ings Act, which would have restricted
EAJA reimbursements to parties with
a direct and personal interest in an
adjudication or if those parties unnec-
HVVDULO\SURORQJHGD¿QDOUHVROXWLRQ
GUEST
VIEW
Rep. Mike
Simpson
The courts should never be “Plan
A,” and the judicial process should
never be used to enrich groups, enti-
ties or individuals. Rather, media-
tion and arbitration can often avoid
costly and lengthy legal battles and
UHVROYHLVVXHVLQDPXWXDOO\EHQH¿FLDO
manner.
In addition to reducing inappropri-
ate use of the federal courts, we must
also ensure that United States Dis-
trict Courts are equipped to process
increasingly high caseloads. As the
U.S. population shifts out of cities and
towards states like Idaho, not every
federal district is authorized enough
judgeships to meet the demand on
the courts. In fact, the federal district
of Idaho has had just two federal dis-
trict judges since 1954, when the pop-
ulation of the state was only 600,000.
It is now at 1.7 million and counting,
and as Idaho’s population grows, so
does the number of court cases.
The imbalance is so severe that
the nonpartisan Judicial Conference
of the United States has formally rec-
ommended that Congress authorize
one new permanent district judge in
Idaho consistently since 2003. To alle-
viate this crisis, I introduced H.R.
319, a bill to add an additional judge
to the Federal District Court of Idaho.
Adding a third judgeship would pro-
vide Idahoans easier access to federal
courts and further decrease backlogs
within the system.
I have also pushed for legislation
to address the backlog in the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, which cov-
ers Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam,
Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada,
Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon and
Washington. The Ninth Circuit has
more than six times the population than
WKH)LUVW&LUFXLWDQGFDUULHV¿YHWLPHV
the case backlog of most U.S. appeals
courts. That is why I introduced H.R.
320, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
Judgeship and Reorganization Act, on
January 13, 2021.
This legislation would divide
the Ninth Circuit into a Ninth Cir-
cuit composed of California, Guam,
Hawaii and Northern Mariana Islands
and a new Twelfth Circuit U.S. Court
of Appeals composed of Alaska, Ari-
zona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Ore-
gon, and Washington.
Similar legislation has also been
introduced by Senators Crapo and
Risch in the Senate.
Access to the courts, legal repre-
sentation and justice are core Ameri-
can values. However, misuse of civil
litigation and an overburdened judi-
cial system prolongs resolution of dis-
putes and wastes precious resources
DQGWLPH,¿UPO\EHOLHYHWKDWMXVWLFH
delayed is justice denied, and I remain
committed to improving and reorga-
nizing the federal judicial system to
protect the legitimate rights of all.
Rep. Mike Simpson represents
Idaho in the U.S. House.